Authorities over the weekend exhumed a male cadaver in a village in Magpet, North Cotabato believed buried more than a year ago.

Sr. Insp. Sunny Leoncito, officer-in-charge of the Magpet police station identified the male cadaver as that of Teofilo Coquilla, Jr., 43, of Tugbok, Davao City.

Coquilla was suspected to be a military spy by alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels, according to Lt. Nasrullah Sema, head of the civil military operations of the 57th Infantry Battalion.

Sema said that a rebel returnee, whom he refused to identify for security purposes, gave them the information about the gravesite.

Authorities said that Coquilla went missing on March 2, 2011 after attending a barangay fiesta in Magpet.

The informant related that a certain Commander Berto of the NPA forces operating in North Cotabato was responsible for the killing of Coquilla, according to Leoncito.

Village officials confirmed that the area where the gravesite was located was a former rebel enclave.

Coquilla’s wife came with police and government troops to the gravesite.

Sema, meanwhile, said that the relatives are bent on filing charges against the perpetrators.